Pleased to Meet You, Lady Elizabeth
There she was. Powerful and maternal, she claimed her place at the head of her family, teaching from an open book while her husbands slept elsewhere. We finally "met" more than 400 years after her death and burial in this medieval church, and friends of mine who saw my pictures there wondered about my joy at standing in a tomb.
I spent several years studying the life of a 16th century English noblewoman, Lady Elizabeth Cooke Hoby Russell. When I finally traveled to England as a senior undergraduate researcher, I thought I knew everything there was to know about her, but I was wrong. In England, I saw how her signature changed through time, and how she forged relationships with others through physical writing. I felt her personality in the pages of documents that she wrote or dictated in a way that printed sources could not communicate. I witnessed her devotion to her family when I saw other funeral monuments she had designed. I even crept through her house while people downstairs prepared the great hall for a wedding, which her portrait would look down on as it had countless times before.
But nothing compared to the experience of looking at Elizabeth in the funeral monument of her own design. There, I finally encountered her legacy as closely as possible to the way she had intended. After 400 years of consistent flooding from the Thames, it is unlikely that her physical remains are still in the crypt or even identifiable, but it was almost as though I could feel her presence anyway.
That experience in a quiet countryside chapel has changed the way I think about how we craft our legacies, and it cemented in my mind the idea of historical subjects as people that we are just trying to get to know.
Lady Elizabeth Cooke Hoby Russell
All Saints Bisham
March 2019
Frankie Urrutia-Smith, Graduate Student, 24
lady-elizabeth
A House
Coming from a small country, one that is often overlooked, I was ready to dismiss any accomplishment produced by it. So much, that I did not see around me the beauty in my country that inspired Dario. I regarded his work as a piece of art separate from Nicaragua, not born from it. This moment helped me regain confidence in telling other people where I was raised. It helped me see the beauty of a country.
Every single year, from first grade all the way up to senior year, we heard about one man: Ruben Darío. Growing up in Nicaragua, where this internationally renowned poet/writer is from, one would expect that. We covered his biography life’s works multiple times in our literature classes. I recognized his undeniable talent, but somehow I had managed to overlook the simple fact he was Nicaraguan. It was not until 11th grade when we had a field trip to his house, which is now a preserved landmark 45 minutes away from my school, that I truly understood he was truly Nicaraguan.
Coming from a small country, one that is often overlooked, I was ready to dismiss any accomplishment produced by it. So much, that I did not see around me the beauty in my country that inspired Dario. I regarded his work as a piece of art separate from Nicaragua, not born from it. This moment helped me regain confidence in telling other people where I was raised. It helped me see the beauty of a country.
Ruben Dario
“Primaveral” by Ruben Dario
2015
Alejandro, 19, student
a-house
Learning to Sing Stories
<p>Juan Felipe Herrera, a performance artist, activist, and U.S. poet laureate in 2015, recalls how his third-grade teacher’s compliment on his singing voice led to his lifelong belief in using his voice to encourage the beauty in the voices, stories, and, experiences of others. He goes on to speak about the power of the humanities to warm communities, create peace, and, move hearts.</p>
<p>To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit <a href="http://calhum.org/about/we-are-the-humanities" title="California Humanities: We Are the Humanities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California Humanities: We Are the Humanities</a>.</p>
Juan Felipe Herrera, performance artist, activist, and U.S. Poet Laureate in 2015
juan-felipe-herrera